A Person Emergency Response System (PERS) enables an elderly person or other person at elevated risk of incapacitating medical emergency or other situation of duress requiring 3rd party intervention to summon help. For example, a PERS may be activated by a person experiencing a debilitating fall, a heart attack, an acute asthma attack or other respiratory emergency, or so forth. The PERS typically includes a transmitter device in the form of a necklace-worn pendant, a bracelet, or the like. By activating the transmitter device, a speakerphone console in the residence is activated, by which the at-risk person is placed into telephonic contact with a PERS call center operator. The PERS operator speaks with the calling person (hereinafter referred to as a PERS “subscriber” as the person subscribes with the PERS service, although any associated costs or fees may be paid by a medical insurance company or other third party), and takes appropriate action such as talking the subscriber through an asthma episode, summoning emergency medical service (EMS), dispatching a local PERS agent, neighbor, or other authorized person to check on the subscriber, or so forth. In providing assistance, the PERS operator has access to a subscriber profile stored on a PERS server, which provides information such as (by way of illustration) name, location, demographic information, a list of the person's known chronic conditions, a list of the person's medications, an identification of the nearest hospital, a list of emergency contacts (spouse, relative, friend), physician information, and so forth.
The PERS architecture typically assumes a homebound subscriber (where “home” may be an individual residence, a group residence, an apartment, an assisted care facility, or so forth). The assumption of a homebound subscriber enables use of lean PERS architecture. For example, in one PERS architecture, the transmitter device includes a low-power, short-range radio transmitter (e.g. operating at 900 MHz in some PERS) and the residential speakerphone console is connected to a telephone landline. Activating the transmitter device generates a radio signal that triggers the speakerphone console to connect with the call center. In this design, the transmitter device is a simple device operating at very low power, and most of the system complexity at the residence end is built into the speakerphone console.
A disadvantage of this PERS architecture is that the PERS is only usable when the subscriber is in his or her residence, or in immediate proximity thereto.
The following discloses a new and improved systems and methods that address the above referenced issues, and others.